i'm a newbie to the this forum stuff and i have recently post about a cnc lathe,
but i have since been told that that is not the done thing.
i should have said "hello" and thank you for adding me 1st of all, so i would like to say sorry if this has rubbed anyone up the wrong way.

another hiccup I have is,
i was quite lucky to be given a 1975 honda xl250 rolling chase, found a old engine on ebay (came in 9 boxes) built it and it runs, had to get a wire loom from the states, but the indicator relay that came on the loom only has 2 pins on it but i can't get it work right.
when i play around with the 3 wires (black, grey and a green earth) the lamps are either on permanently or the relay clicks but no light.
someone did say i need to earth the handle bar control for this to work e.g.. the chrome handle bars.

Yes there should be a green wire from the indicator switch cluster, that is the earth wire. Green wires are earth on these bikes.
Use your multi meter to check that it really is going to earth. However I dont think that particular earth is at fault here.
When you switch to, for example the left indicator,you send 6v through the left indicator circuit orange wires. The wiring to the rear indicators is all black BUT there should be an orange sleeve on the rear lh indicator wiring to help identify.
Check it is all wired up correctly.
When you push the switch to indicate Left current flows through the indicator relay, then on through the left Indicator bulbs to earth.
This makes the springy thing (technical term) in the relay heat up and in less than a second it pings "open" and tuns off the current to the bulbs.
Then it cools down in less than a second, closes the circuit so the current flows through the bulbs again, heats up the springy thing and so it continues.

It is vital that all the bulbs are in the circuit for this to work. More importantly they must have good earth connections.
It is nearly always earth connections.